Adjustable safety cabinet



Jan. 1, 1963 D. c. WEST 3,071,425

ADJUSTABLE SAFETY CABINET Filed Aug. 19, 1960 Dada C h/esif INVENTOR. WHANN E MC MAN/64L lU/orneys fir J /I/banf 3,071,425 Patented Jan. 1, 1963 1 ice 3,071,425 ADJUSTABLE SAFETY CABINET Dade C. West, 1125 Montecito Drive, Los Angeles 31, Calif. Filed Aug. 19, 1960, Ser. No. 50,613 2 Claims. (Cl. 312-205) The present invention relates to a safety cabinet and is more particularly concerned with a safety cabinet to provide a safety storage of medicines, insecticides or other poisonous articles and chemicals.

There are many types of cabinets which are complex and cumbersome for the average individual to handle. In general, conventional devices of this character are inheren-tly so constructed as to be mounted in a specific place and manner which limits placement to a given area. Such devices have not, in general, been adapted for diversified placement where the measurements of the area for placement differ from that of the device.

Having the foregoing inherent disadvantages of the conventional devices in mind, the present invention has for one object the provision for extending and contracting the cabinet so as to facilitate the mounting in various sizes of openings. Thus, the length of the device is variable so that it does not have to be manufactured to close tolerances and for a specific spacing.

Most medicine cabinets are not provided with a locked compartment for storing poisons, medications or other preparations dangerous to children and the aged. Thus, another object of the invention is to have asafety cabinet which can be readily installed in a medicine cabinet to provide a locked compartment for such poisonous articles in order that they may be kept out of the hands of those not capable of handling such articles.

Another object of the invention is to have a safety cabinet which can be adjusted in size in which there is a main body section having slideable end units that can be fastened at their ends to the inside walls of various size medicine cabinets. Since medicine cabinets are of various sizes, a single size safety cabinet cannot be made which would fill all the different size medicine cabinets.

Still another object is to provide a safety cabinet which may be expanded or collapsed to properly fit and then secured in place to form a completely closed safety cabinet, the interior of which is accessible through its own lockable door.

A further object of the invention is to incorporate a lock therein so as to limit accessibility to articles stored in the device. In other words, only a person with a key can open the device. Since it is easy to limit the possession of keys for the cabinet to adults, children are unlikely to have access to the con-tents thereof.

Another object is to provide easy access to all areas within the cabinet so that a correct selection of articles may be made.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive and convenient device for mounting in other devices such as inside a medicine cabinet.

Still another object recites in that the invention can be mounted as a complete unit in itself.

The characteristics and advantages of the invention are further sufiiciently referred to in connection with the following detailed description of the accompanying drawings which represent certain embodiments. After considering these examples, skilled persons will understand that variation may be made without departing from the principles disclosed and I contemplate the employment of any structure, arrangement or modes of operation that are properly within the scope of the appended claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, which are for illustrative purposes only:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the invention fixed in a medicine cabinet, a portion of which is broken away;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a partial top plan view showing the scored tabs; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of one of the telescopic ends.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings, the adjustable safety cabinet is shown in FIG. 1 'as comprising a rectangularly shaped tubular main body, generally indicated at 10, having open ends 11 and 12 respectively. The main body 10 is made up of a front wall 13, back wall 14 and top and bottom walls 16 and 18 respectively. The front wall has an access opening 20 which is normally closed by an overlapping door 22 as illustratedin FIG. 1. A hinge 24 is formed at the top edge of the door 22 which is hingedly connected throughout its length to the top edge of the access opening 20, although other hinging arrangements maybe used.

There is a lock assembly 25 mounted on the door 22 located centrally between the ends of the door 22 and inwardly from the bottom edge of said door. The lock 25 has a locking tongue 26 which, when in a locking position, is fixed in a downward position behind rim or lip 27 of the lowermost edge of the access opening. Each open end 11 and 12 of the main tubular body 10 is closed with telescoping end units 28 and 30 respectively. These end units 28 and 30 are of box shape construction having an end wall 32 with holes or openings 33 to receive screws 35 or other suitable means for securing the adjustable safety cabinet to a fixed support or supports 40 as shown in FIG. 1. The side walls 34 and 36 with top walls 37 and bottom wall 38 fit snugly against the corresponding inner faces of the walls in the main body 10 but are slidably movable on said faces so that said end units 28 and 30 are slidable inwardly and outwardly in the openings 11 and 12 of the main body 10.

Centrally located at each end of the top wall 16 of the main body 10, there are scored tabs 42. These tabs 42 can be punched inwardly and bent downwardly so as to provide stops to fix the correct length of the overall cabinet and to keep the main body 10 in a centrally located position relative to the end units 28 and 30. When anyone of the several tabs is selected, it is bent inwardly so that it projects downwardly to act as a stop means against which the inner top edge of the wall 37 abuts as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. It is to be understood, of course, that other stop means for selecting the length of the cabinet and limiting the movement of the main body may be employed instead of tabs 42.

When the cabinet is to be installed in a given space between fixed supports, the cabinet is assembled by installing the end units 28 and 30 into the open ends 11 and 12 of the main body 10 and then adjusted by lengthening or shortening the overall length of the cabinet to the corresponding width of the space in which it is to be installed. Having adjusted the cabinet to the approximate length desired, the correct tabs 42 are then selected and bent into a downward position for limiting the movement of the main body 10 and end members from changing the fixed length of the cabinet. Then the safety cabinet is placed in position between the fixed supports and the end units are secured in place to the supports.

As shown in FIG. 1, the safety cabinet is mounted in a medicine cabinet having the end units secured to the inside walls of the cabinet. When the safety cabinet is used in this manner it then becomes a separate compartment leaving the shelves and remaining area in the medicine cabinet free for uses and storage of nonpoisonous articles.

construction and arrangement of the parts of the inven-- tion without departing from the spirit and scope thereof or sacrificing its material advantages, the embodiment hereinbefore described being merely for the purpose of illustration.

I claim:

1. In a safety cabinet for mounting in various size medicine or other cabinets having spaced side walls, a combination of:

(A) a tubular, body of rectangular cross section having top, bottom, back and front walls and access opening in said front wall closed by a lockable door;

(B) telescopic end units having top, bottom, front, back and end walls, each of said unitsbeing telescopically supported by said body, and being movable so that said safety cabinet may be placed in said cabinet and said end units expanded, into engagement, with the spaced side walls of said cabinet;

(C) and means for securing said end units in contact with said spaced side walls of said medicine cabinet.

2. In a safety cabinet for mounting in various size medicine or other cabinets having spaced side walls, a combination of:

(A) a centrally located rectangularly shaped tubular main body,

(a) having open ends and having top, bottom,

front and backwalls,

4 (b) said front wall having a central access opening defined at its ends by portions of the said front Wall formed integrally with the adjacent edge portion of said top and bottom walls;

(B) a door hingedly connected through its length to the top edge of said opening;

(C) locking means mounted on said door;

(D) box-shaped telescopic end units having top, bottom, front, back and end walls, each of said end walls of said end units are adapted to support said main body between fixed supports;

(E) and scored tabs centrally located at opposite ends of said top wall of the main body whereby a tab is selected for limiting the inward movement of said end units and centrally locating said main body in a fixed position relative to said end units.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 876,235 Quakenboss Jan. 7, 1908 906,545 Morse Dec. 15, 1908 974,852 Bishop Nov. 8, 1910 1,120,955 Martin Dec. 15, 1914 1,210,682 Painter Jan. 2, 1917 1,212,948 Hesse Jan. 16, 1917 1,992,640 Steen Feb. 26, 1935 2,475,961 Hilbert July 12, 1949 2,720,776 Eberle Oct. 18, 1955 

1. IN A SAFETY CABINET FOR MOUNTING IN VARIOUS SIZE MEDICINE OR OTHER CABINETS HAVING SPACED SIDE WALLS, A COMBINATION OF: (A) A TUBULAR BODY OF RETANGULAR CROSS SECTION HAVING TOP, BOTTOM, BACK AND FRONT WALLS AND ACCESS OPENING IN SAID FRONT WALL CLOSED BY A LOCKABLE DOOR; (B) TELESCOPIC END UNITS HAVING TOP, BOTTOM, FRONT, BACK AND END WALLS, EACH OF SAID UNITS BEING TELESCOPICALLY SUPPORTED BY SAID BODY, AND BEING MOVABLE SO THAT SAID SAFETY CABINET MAY BE PLACED IN SAID CABINET AND SAID END UNITS EXPANDED INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH THE SPACED SIDE WALLS OF SAID CABINET; (C) AND MEANS FOR SECURING SAID END UNITS IN CONTACT WITH SAID SPACED SIDE WALLS OF SAID MACHINE CABINET. 